W.H. Leland & Co drill press

This is a very interesting metal working drill press, with a very large sliding table, a sturdy mechanism for adjustment and tons of travel.

Its loud, insanely heavy (700 lbs) and works beautifully. A very worthwhile upgrade from its predecessors and it compliments the Barnes nicely.

The original motor was a 110/220v, single phase repulsion motor. Too massive, too heavy, it was replaced by a modern 1 hp, 3ph thats a quarter of the size. And much quieter.

I acquired this in Feb 2016 (after my self-declared moratorium on additional machines...it was really cheap!)​Unfortunately, this became the 4th drill press in the shop and I needed to clear out the other ones first.So, I switch tactics, and quickly pressed this into service and decided to clean it up later.

The huge table is a great help. It only moves vertically, without any tilt capability (which I've needed twice in 5 years). Everything is rock solid.

The only idiosyncrasies are

The top belt that twists 90 degrees. If its run backwards at all (example a bit is stuck and needs to be extracted) then the belts pops off.

All those drive cones are heavy and build up a lot of momentum. When you turn off the power, it takes about 30 sec to coast to a stop.

HistoryIt appears to have been made around 1915, by W.H. LeLand, before the amalgamation created LeLand Gifford.